54 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



mitted to take with them to their homes, if they have 

 any, all the rejected railroad tariff bills, Beardsley's 

 speech on female suffrage, Claussen's reply, Kasson's 

 speech on barnacles, Blakeley's dog bill, Teale's liquor 

 bill, and be given a pass over the Des Moines Valley 

 Railroad, with the earnest hope that they will never 

 return to Des Moines. 



Once the Granger laws were enacted, the rail- 

 roads either fought the laws in court or obeyed 

 them in such a way as to make them appear most 

 obnoxious to the people, or else they employed both 

 tactics. The lawsuits, which began as soon as the 

 laws had been passed, dragged on, in appeal after 

 appeal, until finally they were settled in the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States. These suits 

 were not so numerous as might be expected, because 

 in most of the States they had to be brought on the 

 initiative of the injured shipper, and many shippers 

 feared to incur the animosity of the railroad. A 

 farmer was afraid that, if he angered the railroad, 

 misfortunes would befall him: his grain might be 

 delivered to the wrong elevators or left to stand and 

 spoil in damp freight cars; there might be no cars 

 available for grain just when his shipment was 

 ready; and machinery destined for him might be 

 delayed at a time when lack of it would mean the 

 loss of his crops. The railroads for their part 



